a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a binding that secures a person's boot in place, and more particularly to such a binding which is particularly adapted for use in connection with snow boards.
B. Background Art
In recent years, the sport of snow boarding has become increasingly popular, and this activity often takes place on ski slopes. Accordingly, the snow boarder, after completing his run down the snow covered ski slope, then makes his way to the chairlift to be carried to the top of the slope of the next run.
The arrangement of the conventional chairlift is such that the skiers will get in line for the chairlift, and make their way forward in the line as people continue to be carried up by the lift. If the pathway to the boarding location of the chairlift has a moderate uphill slant, then the skier will often use his poles to assist him in moving further along the path.
However, for the snow boarder this presents a somewhat different set of problems. First, the person using a snow board generally does not carry ski poles or the equivalent thereof. Therefore, when the person using the snow board has to make his way up even a moderately inclined pathway to the boarding point of the chairlift, it would be necessary for the person to either take off the snow board and walk up to the boarding point of the chairlift, or to disengage at least one foot from the snow board and use the one foot to push his way up the path while the other foot remains on the snow board. Then when the person moves into place at the boarding position in the path of the moving chair, the person will usually immediately move the free foot into engagement with the binding on the snow board. Then the person simply sits on the chair as the chair moves into a position proximate to the person's legs, and the person is then carried up the hill in the chairlift.
When a person wearing skis is carried upwardly by the chairlift and approaches the unloading location, the person will normally simply stand up from the chair and ski away from the unloading location. On the other hand, if the person has a snow board with one foot disengaged, he will have to reconnect his disengaged boot to the snow board shortly before unloading. Then at the unloading location, the person with the snow board will be able to stand up from the chair and snow board down the incline from the unloading location. More often, the snow boarder will have both feet secured to the snow board when he first sits on the chair at the boarding location. Overall, the snow boarder faces a somewhat different set of problems in utilizing the conventional chairlift at a skiing facility.
Another consideration is that the releasing requirements are somewhat different for snow boarding than for snow skiing. When a person falls on snow skis, one of the snow skis may remain in a normal position aligned in a forward to rear direction, while the other ski may catch and begin turning in a manner to begin twisting the person's foot. Accordingly, the ski binding must release at a predetermined force level that is below that force level which (if exerted in a twisting or other motion on a person's foot) would damage the person's foot, ankle or leg.
On the other hand, since the snow board itself is a single object to which the snow boarder's feet are secured, it is customary to hold the snow boarder's feet to the snow board more securely, the reason being that it would be rather uncommon for a single foot to be subjected to the sort of twisting motion that could occur in snow skiing. However, since the snow boarder must be able to engage or disengage his feet with the snow board, there must be an adequate release mechanism which is convenient to operate. This is particularly true under the circumstances where the snow boarder is using a conventional chairlift, and is (as described above) disengaging and engaging at least one foot with the snow board in getting on to the chair and unloading from the chair.
Another consideration is that sometimes the person with the snow board will take a fall on the slope and end up in a precarious position in deep snow, and this situation could even be life threatening. Then, it becomes necessary for the snow boarder to disengage his boots from the snow board so that he could recover from that position in the deep snow. Accordingly, the disconnecting mechanism in the snow board binding must be such as to provide a quick and convenient release.
A search of the patent literature has disclosed a number of patents relating to snow board bindings particularly (and to some extent snow ski bindings), and these are presented below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,443 (Kincheloe) shows a ski board binding where there is what is called a socket portion 26 that is attached to the board, and an attachment plate which attaches to the boot and slides into engagement with the socket member 26. (See FIG. 1 and FIG. 3.) To hold the boot in place, the plate 28 that is attached to the boot engages a retaining member 80. As can be seen in FIGS. 5 through 8, the plate 28 is slid laterally into the slideways defined by the retaining members 38 and 40, and as can be seen in FIG. 7, as the plate 28 slides in, it will depress the retaining member 80. When the plate 28 is fully in place, the retaining member 80 springs back up to lock the plate (to which the boot is attached) to the ski board. To release the retaining member there is a tab member 92 provided that is depressed to in turn depress the retaining member 80.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,073 (Raines et al) shows a snow board binding where there is a stationary retaining member 60 that is fixedly attached to the ski board and engages one side of a plate attached to the boot. Then there is a second oppositely positioned boot engaging member 70 that has a base portion 74 and a hooking lip 76 which is spring loaded to move toward the boot and engage an opposite side of the plate that is attached to the boot. This hook member 76 is spring loaded to its retaining position, and there is a release member 102 that can be manually grasped to release the boot from the binding.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,007 (Dennis) shows a snow board binding where there is a toe piece binding clip assembly 15 mounted to the ski board and a heel engaging safety release clip assembly 16 also attached to the ski board. These are conventional safety binding elements, and it is indicated in the text of the application that these could be of the type manufactured by Salomon (Model S-626). The boot is attached to a member that has what might be called an X shape in that the forwardly and rearwardly extending elements engage the forward and rear binding assemblies 15 and 16, and the laterally slanting portion supports the toe and heel portion of the boot.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,248 (Wiley) shows a ski boot binding for a snow ski where there is a toe retaining element and a heel retaining element. There is a spring loaded member 147 that moves in a path parallel to the ski as it moves from its latching to its unlatching position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,258,274 (Beecher) shows a clipping element in a ski binding that slides along the axis of the ski.